After 'retirement,' priestly duties continue

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free PRess

Retirement didn’t stop a local priest from going to prison – COVID did, but only temporarily.
Msgr. John E. Doran said he first volunteered to celebrate Sunday afternoon Masses at the Federal Medical Center - Devens, which houses mainly federal prisoners, more than 20 years ago.
At the time he was pastor of St. Leo Parish in Leominster, which already had seven Lord’s Day Masses – two on Saturday nights and five on Sunday mornings – he said. (Other priests celebrated some of those Masses.)
Msgr. Doran retired in 2015, but still celebrates Masses where needed in parishes around the diocese – and at Devens.
The former Fort Devens active-duty military installation closed in 1996 and the Federal Bureau of Prisons acquired some of the land for the current facility.
The Bureau of Prisons website describes the complex there as “an administrative security federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.” Administrative facilities are institutions with special missions, such as treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems, the website says. It says there are 907 inmates at the FMC at Devens and 60 at the camp.
Msgr. Doran said about 60 inmates attend Masses he celebrates at the FMC, and eight to 10 attend his Masses at the camp.
He said the prison’s original Catholic chaplain, Deacon Robert M. Werner, sought out priests to celebrate Masses midday on Sundays there.
Deacon Werner, BOP staff chaplain at Devens from 1998 until his retirement in 2017, said the facility is in Harvard, which is part of the Diocese of Worcester. Prisoners’ sacramental records are kept at the Catholic parish in Harvard, now called Holy Trinity.
Many priests from the Worcester Diocese volunteered, and some came from the Archdiocese of Boston, but most didn’t stay long, Deacon Werner said. Some were transferred or got too busy, he said.
“I volunteered from St. Leo’s because generally our Masses were over by one o’clock,” Msgr. Doran said. He said he went “because there was a need.”
Celebrants coming in to say Mass receive a $100 stipend, Msgr. Doran said.
“The money is not the thing; it’s too much hassle” for many priests to add Sunday afternoon Masses to their schedule, he said.
Those who served the longest were Msgr. Doran and Jesuit Father James M. Shaughnessy from Boston, Deacon Werner said. When religious services resumed after the pandemic shutdown, these two priests returned.
Msgr. Doran said they go as needed now. The new Catholic staff chaplain there is a priest, so he celebrates most Masses.
Deacon Werner said, “Bishop (George E.) Rueger used to say Mass and he did some holy days. He came up at least several times a year. The guys really liked him.” Bishop Rueger kept coming after he retired as auxiliary bishop of the Worcester Diocese, the deacon said.
Deacon Werner also had high praise for Msgr. Doran.
“He was always well prepared, gave outstanding homilies,” he said. “Very warm. People really liked him.”
St. Leo’s Parish gave the prison copies of The Catholic Free Press.
“We put them in the library and guys would take them and pass them around,” Deacon Werner said. The prison also got copies of The Pilot, the Boston Archdiocese’s newspaper, he said.
Msgr. Doran said he has administered other sacraments, in addition to celebrating Mass at the prison. He’s also available to hear confessions and anoint the sick.
“I did one wedding there,” he says. “I’ve had a couple baptisms at the Easter Vigil,” and confirmed the newly baptized. (Deacon Werner prepared the prisoners for the sacraments through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.)
What keeps him going to Devens?
“Just the need,” Msgr. Doran says. “I wanted to minister to the prisoners … be sort of a pastor to them,” because they are members of the Catholic community and they need the Mass and sacraments.